The dissertation study is devoted to the personality of the Austrian composer, music critic and philosopher, teacher and pianist Joseph Marx (1882–1964). The creative heritage of the composer includes a significant number of chamber, symphonic and choral opuses, as well as more than 150 vocal works. A brilliant pianist and concertmaster, J. Marx enriched the treasury of the world piano repertoire with two piano concertos (“Romantic Concerto” in E major and Three Pieces for Piano with Orchestra “Castelli Romani”), piano cycles “Six Pieces for Piano” and “Stories of butterflies”, as well as a number of separate piano pieces.
It has been defined that in recent decades there has been a revival of interest in J. Marx’s work in concert halls and in the scientific and research area. After the composer’s death, his legacy was almost forgotten even in his homeland (with the exception of chamber and vocal works), but in the 1990s both piano concerts, “Autumn Symphony”, chamber and choral opuses returned to the repertoire. Works of modern musicologists A. Holzer, W. Marihart, C. Mora and others continued the study of J. Marx’s work, begun by his students A. Liess and E. Werba during the composer’s lifetime.
It has been established that in Ukraine the work of J. Marx has hardly been the object of research until today. At the same time, the artist left an important influence on the history of Ukrainian music: among his students are such bright Ukrainian musicians like the composer and pianist N. Nyzhankivskyi, the violinist and composer R. Prydatkevych, the first Ukrainian woman composer S. Turkevich-Lukiyanovych, the virtuoso pianist and composer T. Mykysha. The vocal works of J. Marx have been a part of the repertoire of Ukrainian vocalists for decades. Since 2017, the author of this dissertation became the first performer of a number of piano and chamber-instrumental works by J. Marx in Ukraine. Therefore, the research and popularization of the legacy of this Austrian composer in Ukraine is appropriate and timely. The study of the work of J. Marx expands our knowledge of the cultural and artistic situation in Austria in the first half of the last century, reveals new aspects of the history of piano and chamber music in the 20th century, contributes to the involvement of current scientific issues of the relationship between tradition and innovation, late romanticism, modernism, the musical Jugendstil, etc. For the first time in Ukrainian musicology, a detailed biography of J. Marx with an analysis of the main life and creative stages is presented. All spheres of the artist’s creative activity are characterized: compositional, theoretical, critical, pedagogical and socio-cultural. It has been established that as a graduate of the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Graz and a student of A. Meinong, J. Marx formed his own clear system of philosophical and aesthetic views, which he consistently followed throughout his life. The artist was the author of one of the first theoretical studies of the psychology of sound perception and tonality, which he considered a universal law. J. Marx was one of the most prominent composition teachers of the 20th century: over 1,250 students from different countries of the world graduated from his class in forty years.
The reasons for the untimely completion of the composer’s professional work (1946, 18 years before his death) and the long-term oblivion of J. Marx’s work have been determined. First of all, it is conservatism and static musical and aesthetic views, which gradually distanced the composer from the current trends in the development of Western European musical art. It was also a partial coincidence of the artist’s aesthetic views with the cultural ideology of the Nazi party, which led to prejudicial accusations of collaboration with the Nazi government. Considerable attention is paid to the problem of J. Marx’s activity within the cultural policy of the Third Reich: it is proved that the artist was forced to continue his creative and social work, but did not share or support the Nazi ideology. The life path of J. Marx reflects the diverse aspects of the artist’s creative existence in the first half of the 20th century.
The aesthetic principles of J. Marx’s work are outlined. Emphasis is placed on the problems of connections between the composer’s work and the national characteristics of the Austrian artistic mentality. It is shown that the traditionalism of Marx and his like-minded people had two components: cultural and political (“protection of traditions” as a cornerstone of the cultural and artistic policy of Austria at that time) and aesthetic and psychological (fear of the “destructive” innovations of the avant-garde). J. Marx’s creative and socio-cultural activities were aimed at supporting the world authority of Austria as a “cultural superpower”.
